The government is facing criticism from animal rights campaigners and sections of the national press after it emerged that the calf of an American cloned cow was born on a British farm. Concern has been raised that, due to a loophole in current legislation, dairy products originating from the calf could enter the human food chain. To date, the rules that state that food products from cloned animals must undergo stringent vetting do not apply to products from their offspring.

The safety of eating meat and diary products from cloned animals and their offspring has been hotly disputed. In December 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration's report on animal clone safety stated that: "Edible products from healthy clones that meet existing requirements for meat and milk in commerce pose no increased food consumption risk(s) relative to comparable products from sexually-derived [conventional] animals."

However, agricultural groups have said that consumers are reluctant to buy products sourced from the offspring of cloned animals. The Soil Association's policy chief, Peter Melchett, said: "I have seen absolutely no evidence that consumers want this and lots of evidence which suggests that they are very uneasy about the idea of eating meat or dinking milk from cloned animals."

Are we right to be concerned about the lack of regulation on food products sourced from cloned livestock? Or are we allowing an ethical argument to disrupt a potentially valuable source of high-quality foodstuffs? And the bottom line: would you eat 'cloned meat'?